1. ‘Dark & Long’
This is a previously unreported section of Blackburn Brook, a small culverted river in the North of Sheffield. I’m calling it ‘Dark & Long’ after the Underworld song, which is a recommended addition to any dra1nz playlist. (I considered ‘Born Slippy’ but I actually narrowly avoided landing on my arse on both occasions, in spite of the slime covered brick in some sections, so I’ll baggsy that name for a future occasion).
Another nearby, downstream segment of Blackburn Brook was previously reported on by @WB back in 2010 - I’ll deal with that section in the second part of this thread. However, as far as I’m aware, nobody has yet ventured to report on this section, due to the off-putting deep pool of stench that lies in front of the outflow, which (at the time) featured ominously dead fish. While the deep pool of stench still stinks of death, I spotted happier looking fish on my visits here and decided to have a quick peek inside, after doing the earlier sections. As usual, a ‘quick peek’ turned into an obsession with seeing the whole thing...
D&L is a culvert and CSO (hence the stench, from the times that the S does its O’ing). I visited here twice, solo. On the first visit I made it part way down the concrete section, before I got wary of the grey skies I’d left outside and bailed. As usual, doing a partial job was giving me sleepless nights, so I returned at the next opportunity to see the rest. Was really glad I did as it’s surprisingly good.
First thing to note is the enticing outflow. Those sewery browny-black metal pipes make regular appearances inside, and I think the sticky-out-one you can see here is the one that makes it stink so badly outside. The water is fairly deep in the middle but it’s fairly easy to edge in by keeping to the sides...
Once inside it’s all 5ft RCP for a while.
There’s two inspection shafts leading up to manhole covers high above.
Each of these are two levels high, but there’s nothing of particular interest on the levels above as far as I could see... I popped my head up these first two but left my camera at the bottom.
Both inspection shafts are also home to a couple of outflows and vertical pipes. It was fairly sanitary on my first visit, but on the second trip at least one of the outlets had produced something that looked like the kind of thing you see puked up on the pavement outside pubs the morning after a bank holiday drink fest.
There’s a handy hairwash point here, due to a leaky pipe. Useful for getting those spiders out of your hair - there’s quite a few of them down here, and plenty of dangling egg sacks to make you feel even more uneasy.
This was pretty much as far as I got on my first visit, having also covered the earlier section of the brook. The RCP stretched off into the distance as far as I could see, and I (wrongly) assumed that this would just continue until the gated outfall at the other end.
Thankfully, curiosity got the better of me and on my second visit I continued past the second inspection chamber through another lengthy section of 5ft RCP.
Something to do with football, proving I’m not the first down here...
This is what I like to see... RCP making way for red brick. Seeing this I was hopeful that there would be some nice old drainage ahead, and I was correct...
The next bit was my probably my favourite section. The red brick pipe led to a decent sized chamber. To the right and left of the picture you can see old metalwork suggesting there may have been some kind of penstock here at some point, sadly now absent. The concrete ceiling appears to be more modern (note the metal rungs that go nowhere, to the right) and I wouldn’t be surprised if this section once featured a slightly higher arched roof.
Looking back on the metalwork... forgive the foggy pic, this was taken on my way back out...
The large chamber leads into circular brick pipes, and then onwards into a nice flat floored archway, approx 7ish ft high, which weaves left and right. If I’d had more time, or not been on my own, I would have paused longer here to get some better lit photos from the other side of the camera, but I was eager to get on and see what came next.
This corridor like section also featured a number of small, square outflow holes - looking up some of these there didn’t seem to be much potential for crawling up any of them, not that I was really in the mood for such things at this point...
Another hairwash point, water was pouring heavily through this hole from somewhere above. Couldn’t manage to see where it came from without getting a face full of water...
Some really old stonework on these bridges that have been incorporated into the culvert.
Seeing light ahead I though I’d already reached the end, but it just turned out to be a short open section before the culvert dipped again below the buildings above.
I moved quickly through this open section as I didn’t want to be spotted from the buildings above. I suspect they’re not familiar with people getting in their culverts. The banks were vertical and high here, meaning it wouldn’t provide easy entrance or exit to the river...
The short newer brick section again made way for older brickwork and more pipes.
Here the culvert divided in two. I chose the left hand section as the right looked more full of rubble than the left. Along the way were a couple of crudely cut ‘arches’ that looked like they’d been added with a sledgehammer rather than forming part of the original design...
This was the stoopiest section of the whole thing and again full of spiders...
Finally I could see the inflow glowing at the end of the pipe ahead. Short of time, having not expected this visit to take quite this long, I didn’t go right up to the grille as (having seen the inflow) I knew there was no way out. So I began the long walk back at double speed. The return journey was a lot foggier than it had been on the way down, and I began to get a bit paranoid that I’d upset the drain gods... so I was relieved to finally make it back out...
This is a previously unreported section of Blackburn Brook, a small culverted river in the North of Sheffield. I’m calling it ‘Dark & Long’ after the Underworld song, which is a recommended addition to any dra1nz playlist. (I considered ‘Born Slippy’ but I actually narrowly avoided landing on my arse on both occasions, in spite of the slime covered brick in some sections, so I’ll baggsy that name for a future occasion).
Another nearby, downstream segment of Blackburn Brook was previously reported on by @WB back in 2010 - I’ll deal with that section in the second part of this thread. However, as far as I’m aware, nobody has yet ventured to report on this section, due to the off-putting deep pool of stench that lies in front of the outflow, which (at the time) featured ominously dead fish. While the deep pool of stench still stinks of death, I spotted happier looking fish on my visits here and decided to have a quick peek inside, after doing the earlier sections. As usual, a ‘quick peek’ turned into an obsession with seeing the whole thing...
D&L is a culvert and CSO (hence the stench, from the times that the S does its O’ing). I visited here twice, solo. On the first visit I made it part way down the concrete section, before I got wary of the grey skies I’d left outside and bailed. As usual, doing a partial job was giving me sleepless nights, so I returned at the next opportunity to see the rest. Was really glad I did as it’s surprisingly good.
First thing to note is the enticing outflow. Those sewery browny-black metal pipes make regular appearances inside, and I think the sticky-out-one you can see here is the one that makes it stink so badly outside. The water is fairly deep in the middle but it’s fairly easy to edge in by keeping to the sides...
Once inside it’s all 5ft RCP for a while.
There’s two inspection shafts leading up to manhole covers high above.
Each of these are two levels high, but there’s nothing of particular interest on the levels above as far as I could see... I popped my head up these first two but left my camera at the bottom.
Both inspection shafts are also home to a couple of outflows and vertical pipes. It was fairly sanitary on my first visit, but on the second trip at least one of the outlets had produced something that looked like the kind of thing you see puked up on the pavement outside pubs the morning after a bank holiday drink fest.
There’s a handy hairwash point here, due to a leaky pipe. Useful for getting those spiders out of your hair - there’s quite a few of them down here, and plenty of dangling egg sacks to make you feel even more uneasy.
This was pretty much as far as I got on my first visit, having also covered the earlier section of the brook. The RCP stretched off into the distance as far as I could see, and I (wrongly) assumed that this would just continue until the gated outfall at the other end.
Thankfully, curiosity got the better of me and on my second visit I continued past the second inspection chamber through another lengthy section of 5ft RCP.
Something to do with football, proving I’m not the first down here...
This is what I like to see... RCP making way for red brick. Seeing this I was hopeful that there would be some nice old drainage ahead, and I was correct...
The next bit was my probably my favourite section. The red brick pipe led to a decent sized chamber. To the right and left of the picture you can see old metalwork suggesting there may have been some kind of penstock here at some point, sadly now absent. The concrete ceiling appears to be more modern (note the metal rungs that go nowhere, to the right) and I wouldn’t be surprised if this section once featured a slightly higher arched roof.
Looking back on the metalwork... forgive the foggy pic, this was taken on my way back out...
The large chamber leads into circular brick pipes, and then onwards into a nice flat floored archway, approx 7ish ft high, which weaves left and right. If I’d had more time, or not been on my own, I would have paused longer here to get some better lit photos from the other side of the camera, but I was eager to get on and see what came next.
This corridor like section also featured a number of small, square outflow holes - looking up some of these there didn’t seem to be much potential for crawling up any of them, not that I was really in the mood for such things at this point...
Another hairwash point, water was pouring heavily through this hole from somewhere above. Couldn’t manage to see where it came from without getting a face full of water...
Some really old stonework on these bridges that have been incorporated into the culvert.
Seeing light ahead I though I’d already reached the end, but it just turned out to be a short open section before the culvert dipped again below the buildings above.
I moved quickly through this open section as I didn’t want to be spotted from the buildings above. I suspect they’re not familiar with people getting in their culverts. The banks were vertical and high here, meaning it wouldn’t provide easy entrance or exit to the river...
The short newer brick section again made way for older brickwork and more pipes.
Here the culvert divided in two. I chose the left hand section as the right looked more full of rubble than the left. Along the way were a couple of crudely cut ‘arches’ that looked like they’d been added with a sledgehammer rather than forming part of the original design...
This was the stoopiest section of the whole thing and again full of spiders...
Finally I could see the inflow glowing at the end of the pipe ahead. Short of time, having not expected this visit to take quite this long, I didn’t go right up to the grille as (having seen the inflow) I knew there was no way out. So I began the long walk back at double speed. The return journey was a lot foggier than it had been on the way down, and I began to get a bit paranoid that I’d upset the drain gods... so I was relieved to finally make it back out...
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